6 Ways iPhone is Better Than Android

As a geek, I'm disappointed iPhone 4S doesn't connect to 4G networks and hasn't enlarged its screen since the original iPhone four years ago.

But while there are many more models of Android phones, many of which offer 4G and larger displays, there's a reason – actually six reasons – why iPhone has and will continue to be a smarter smart phone choice than Android.

1. iPhone is Safer

Imagine a beautiful, richly-appointed modern home – with no locks on the doors, and located in a drug- and crime-infested neighborhood.

Now imagine the same home located in a gated community under constant police surveillance with Medico bolts on every entrance, a built-in security system, an electrified fence, Rin Tin Tin is your dog and Jason Bourne is your live-in bodyguard.

Where would you want to live?

As you can guess, Android is the open home, iPhone the fortress. This is not idle hyperbole – it's an accepted fact that iPhone is nearly impervious to viruses and other digital trespassers, while incidents of Android malware have risen nearly five-fold in less than a year.

I refer you to last week's post on this subject, "Android Virus Epidemic: Is Your Phone Infected?" Sober and scary and maybe the only reason necessary to choose iPhone.

2. Universal Operating System Updates

When Apple issues an operating system update, all iPhones and iPads get the latest version. Older iPhones may not be able to take advantage of some new features because they lack the latest physical capabilities, but it's all the same operating system (OS) (a minor update to iOS 5.0.2, which will eliminate some lingering battery issues and include some additional Siri capabilities, is reportedly imminent).

Most Android phones, however, are pretty much frozen. If your Android phone runs Éclair 2.1, it likely can't be upgraded to Froyo 2.2. If your phone runs Android Froyo 2.2, it likely can't be upgraded to Gingerbread 2.3. Gingerbread 2.3 phones won't be upgradable to Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0. And so on.

One casualty of this petrified Android OS is the new Google Music service, which Google says requires Android Froyo 2.2 or later. This means no Android phone purchased prior to last May can take advantage of this iTunes-Store-for-Android digital music shopping opportunity.

3. Look Ma, No Caps!

Watch out! If you're an active smart phone user, you may hit your digital head against the data usage caps imposed by Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile.

But according to Sprint CEO Dan Hessen, it'll be easier to duck under that cap with an iPhone than with an Android phone.

Hesse says iPhone is better at finding and alerting you to available Wi-Fi networks, which means you'll consume less cellular data. In addition, Apple has strict network efficient standards, which means your apps don't need to suck data from network as often and keep you from hitting your carrier's data usage cap.

4. Easy Sync

How do you get your content – your photos, your music, videos, etc. – onto an Android phone?

With great difficulty.

I'll bet many of you Android phone owners have little or no music or photos on your phone other that what you bought or captured on it.

Apple, of course, provides the Grand Central Terminal of smart phone syncing, iTunes. Getting your music or photos on your iPhone, along with your contacts and calendar, is as simple as clicking a few boxes.

Conversely, Google has mysteriously avoided creating iTunes-like desktop software to help manage your content and apps.

There are three third-party iTunes-for-Android software options: Miro, Songbird, doubleTwist (they're all free, so go ahead and experiment). While each performs admirably in their own way, none operate as slickly or are as integrated as tightly with your smart phone as iTunes is with iPhone.

5. It's the Ecosystem, Stupid

You can buy AV receivers designed to work with iPhones. Clock radios. Wireless printers. Earphones. Speakers. Many new cars now include iPhone connectors. With an Apple TV, you can easily and wirelessly transmit whatever you're watching, listening or playing on an iPhone or iPad to an HDTV.

Apple's Macs also are designed to work with iPhone (duh). In fact, Apple's desktop OS X is becoming more like iOS every day.

Android is only a mobile operating system and there is no Android-Windows partnership to ensure smooth cooperation. There is no "Made for Android" program. Android phones work seamlessly with few other devices, and when they do, how smoothly depends on which Android model you've got.

Which leads us to…

6. Personalization

No other device can be as highly personalized as your iPhone. Cases, earphones, cases, battery add-ons, cases, speaker docks, cases, car adapters, cases, exercise arm bands, cases – did I mention cases? – and lots of other stuff that's tough to classify (an iPhone-compatible toilet paper dispenser?). (I often wonder why Apple spent so much effort designing the iPhone when most of us cover it up – a mystery wrapped in an enigma).

The design and function imagination unleashed for iPhone accessories is nearly as impressive as the developer creativity applied to apps.

Did you ever try to find a case for your Android phone? There's not much of a selection. Case makers can't bring manufacturing economies of scale to bear to profitably make cases for the dozens of different Android models.

And in-line controls on earbuds often work differently – or not at all – on each Android phone, hence the mere handful of Android-specific earphones, such as the Etymotic mc2.

Bottom line: there would be no Android without iPhone blazing the path. Accept no substitutes.